The Minister of Public Administration Paolo Zangrillo added water to the fire by explaining that he was misunderstood about the TikTok dossier. Just a few weeks ago he had greeted me remarkable opening the decision of European Commission to its staff (again inspired by the US line): prohibit the installation of Chinese Social for privacy reasons. The minister has now stepped back. During the “Rally for the Digital Transition” organized by the Maggioli Group, he stated that he “raised the problem and accepted it suitable for deepening the topic and understand if there are real risks related to the safety of the users of this social network”. Despite the alarm, Zangrillo assures that currently prohibits government employees from using TikTok would not be under government control. “It’s not my decision,” he added.We will clear up this misunderstanding to the public officials».
The European precedent
The misunderstanding mentioned by Minister Zangrillo occurred the day after the decision of the European Commission. The executive body of the Union, followed by the European Council, actually enacted a formal request to its employees asking them to uninstall the Chinese social network. Too many concerns about protecting user privacy. The main fear is that ByteDance, the Chinese company developing the application, could share personal information with the Chinese government. This is where Zangrillo had spoken an investigation by Copasir (Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic) with the aim of examining national security profiles.
Tiktok matters over a billion monthly active users worldwide18 million of them in Italy. The alarm about privacy and intended use of subscriber data was first launched in the United States, with former President Trump’s proposal for a total ban on all Americans, which later fell on deaf ears. The story is different for the sSmartphone on which confidential information is transmittedas held by state officials. In the US, major federal agencies, from the Pentagon down, have already banned use of the Chinese app for those who work in their offices. As mentioned, progress is being made in Europe in the same direction. The fear is that the Chinese government collects not only the data shared with the application, but also that can also access secret documents stored on the phone itself where the application is installed. However, as explained here, the fears of the experts apply to all users. Concerns about our personal data that would not exist without the necessary protection.